Allentown Bus Company Moving Quarters To Business Center In Idle Mack Buildings

December 05, 1985|by JEFF FLEISHMAN, The Morning Call

An Allentown school bus company is moving into two idle Mack Trucks Inc. buildings at 10th and Harrison streets in the city.

McCormack Equipment Inc. is scheduled to buy the buildings from Mack and will be the newest tenant in the Allentown Business Center. The business center is a joint project by Mack and the city to turn idle Mack buildings in the vicinity of the Little Lehigh into space for commercial and light industrial ventures.

The Allentown Business Center was unveiled on Sept. 9 and includes former Mack plants 17, 3, 3A, 4 and 4A. The outdated plants were closed last June.

McCormack, which provides bus service to the Allentown and Southern Lehigh school districts and others, is moving into Mack's former test building and cafeteria. The test building covers 18,000 square feet, and the cafeteria, 5,000.

Neither McCormack or William Frank, vice president of New York City-based Security Pacific Realty Advisory Services, which Mack hired as a consultant, would disclose the purchase price. The deal was finalized in November, and McCormack is applying for a tax-exempt loan for financing.

Stan McCormack, owner of McCormack Equipment, said the purchase of the buildings comes "at a perfect time." McCormack's building at 2115 Downyflake Lane is being torn down by PennDOT for construction of a bridge.

"We've been looking for a place for nine months. It's a move that's good for us and for Allentown because jobs will be kept here," said McCormack. The new buildings will house about 118 employees, three of whom will be newly hired. "Substantial renovation" will have to be done to the buildings, according to McCormack.

Buses for the Allentown School District, formerly housed at the Downyflake Lane site, will be run out of the new location along with the main offices, which are now at 3143 Lehigh St. "It will begood to have everything under one roof," said McCormack.

The bus company also has a site on Preston lane in Center Valley.

Mack will begin renovating the other buildings at the business center at the beginning of the year. Frank said 50 businesses and light industries have expressed a desire to move into the buildings. "But the major problem has been the renovations are not complete. Some people want to move in today."

Frank said the renovations should be completed before spring of 1986, adding that businesses could begin moving in by May 1. There will be a total of about 900,000 square feet including 400,000 square feet of industrial space.

The Allentown Business Center was promoted as the first of its kind in the city. Both business and government leaders applauded the center as a vital step to keeping the city competitive at attracting and retaining businesses.

An earlier development related to the selling of idle Mack buildings in the Little Lehigh area was the purchase of the office and warehouse on Harrison Street for a multimillion dollar, 159-unit apartment building. The project received city zoning board approval on Oct. 31.

The developers of the apartments will operate under the name Bridge View Management. The developers are Benjamin L. Walbert III, an architect; Christopher W. Bracy, president of Ray B. Bracy Construction Co., and Ralph J. and Inese B. Ardolino, principals in Ardolina Associates.